Boston Ballet opens season with 'Obsidian Tear'

Thursday

Nov 9, 2017 at 9:34 AM

By Iris Fanger For The Patriot Ledger

The stirring chords of Jean Sibelius’s “Finlandia,” performed as a musical interlude by the Boston Ballet orchestra, opened the Boston Ballet’s 2017-2018 season Friday night in a salute to artistic director Mikko Nissinen’s homeland. The program continued with a ballet set to the moody notes of “Lachen verlernt” and “Nyx” by another Finn, the contemporary composer and conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and ended with a world premiere to Sibelius’s “Fifth Symphony” by company choreographer-in-residence Jorma Elo, also born in Finland.

The only inconsistency in the homage to Finland was British dance maker Wayne McGregor, but he earned pride of place because of his wham-bam of a ballet, “Obsidian Tear,” danced by nine mostly bare-chested men.

The work, which was a co-commission by the Boston Ballet and the Royal Ballet, premiered in London in May, 2016.

Elo’s ballet, “Fifth Symphony by Jean Sibelius” ended the program by offering a total change of pace, a classical ballet for 35 men and women. Elo is known for abstract pieces that set the dancers moving with sharp elbows and jutting knees in fast and surprising ways. But this pretty ballet, danced on pointe by women partnered by adoring men, brought an unaccustomed look to his work.

“Obsidian Tear,” which might be described as a latter-day version of the Igor Stravinsky-Vaslav Nijinsky “Rite of Spring,” opens in darkness with two bare-chested men on stage. Pablo Arrais wears a black pants-like, long skirt; Irlan Silva is half-dressed in red. Their movements are mysterious, jagged and fractured, bringing them together then flinging them apart. There’s no clue to either their status in society or their relationship to each other. After a long duet, more like a ritual than a ballet, Patrick Yocum joins them on stage, followed by the rest of the male cast.

Except for Silva, the other men’s costumes are variations of dark side warrior or gladiator garb, arranged by fashion director Katie Shillingford, that offer no help in understanding if the performers are members of a tribe, a cult or a fascist organization. Nor does the ambiguous title establish their identity, nationality, or motives.

The man in red is the outsider, always trying to break in or move alongside the others, but he is repulsed if he comes too close. At one point, his chest is slashed with a smear of black grease. The movement is filled with odd lifts and partnering, often violent, with the men changing partners, combining in trios or sometimes a pack. It becomes clear that the man in red is their victim or sacrificial offering to some fearful god when he is led up a flight of stairs at the rear of the stage and then pushed into a void.

The nine male dancers look strong and vibrant, amazingly energized through to the end of the demanding 25-minute long work. One can only imagine them flinging themselves to the floor after the curtain call to heave and gulp large mouthfuls of air until they can catch their breath.

Given the casting of McGregor’s piece for only nine men, Elo surely was given the task of making a ballet that would engage a good chunk of the rest of the company, and put the women front and center.

He did not disappoint, fielding a cast of 35 dancers in “Fifth Symphony” who filled the stage, led by four of the principal women: Ashley Ellis dancing alone as some kind of sprite or fairy, sharing the spotlight with Lia Cirio, Misa Kuranaga, and Kathleen Breen Combes and their partners. Behind them were ranged a corps de ballet of 10 men and 10 women plus four more couples in soloist roles.

In this ballet, Elo upended our expectations about his style, taking his movement cues from the rhythms of the music rather than the ferocious action on the battlefields shown on the evening news. The women were on pointe; the choreography for the corps involved many steps performed in unison and then repeated. Entrance and exits, lifts and jetes (jumps) formed interlocking filigree patterns in the air and on the ground.

Elo often framed the scenes by positioning the dancers in Frieze-like stage pictures either stepping in line across the rear of the stage, or lying along the edge of the floor, close to the audience. A signature step of rocking motion, heel to toe with arms bent over their heads, made them look like figures taken from hieroglyphics on the wall of an Egyptian tomb.

What satisfied most was Elo’s ability to match his choreography to each of the dancers whom he has gotten to know so well over the past seasons and honoring their unique qualities. He presented Lia Cirio as a gorgeous piece of sculpture, turned and molded by her partner, Paul Craig, emphasized the fleet-footed propulsion through space of Misa Kuranaga and her partner, John Lam, and gave Kathleen Breen Combes phrases to perform that enhanced the lushness of her technique, supported by her partner, Junxiong Zhao who gobbled space as if hovering in the air.

The evening, although presenting only two ballets, offered a tantalizing glimpse of more treasures to come as the new season unfolds.